Dolphin browser HD v11

T

Trimlock

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Messages
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I don't really talk too much about individual apps but this is a bit different.

Dolphin just updated their overhaul to their browser and it is awesome. This is the first browser to really take advantage of the larger displays by giving you a great navigation bar at the bottom.

There are more items to this update and it has just become my undisputed primary browser.
 
CHANG3D said:
Any screenshots of the difference between regular and beta?
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Sadly, I can't, but I'll try to see see if there is a website detailing the differences. The biggest being the static navigation bar.
 
Looks like they just merged part of the chinese version of dolphin. Sadly those static bars where the reason i was using the international version, i got a big ass screen that i want filled with content not with bars.It also worries me because my s2 had a discoloration on the android notification bar area, from always having the same colors there.
edit: it seems the new full screen mode saves the day.
 
I switched from dolphin to chrome on my phone as it lagged to much on my s3, guess I'll check out the updated version if they fixed this
 
I've always liked Dolphin. Chrome app annoys me. I do prefer Chrome on the PC though.
 
Yeah I got the update a couple days ago and OP is absolutely right that they nailed it. It was already an outstanding browser but the little touches they added makes it undisputed IMO. The text boxes work bug free, the little up arrow on the bottom of the screen is nice when I'm scrolling thru long screens, the zoom feature when you fat finger 2 buttons I like cause I fat finger links all the time. I know other bowser have had these features before but those were about the only things missing from Dolphin to make it just about perfect. I did have to install Flash for some reason but that was no big deal.
 
Chrome is the poster child for lag on Android, stock browser almost always is much smoother. Never understood how Google allows Chrome on phone to be so bad.
 
Chrome is terrible, the only thing I used it for was tab saving. Now I have no use for it.

The incorporation if the static bar for large screens was awesome, plus hidden tabs. I like the easily enable portions, except night mode is pretty terrible, it needs a lot more contrast.
 
Chrome is pretty close to being good but the bookmarks are too hard to get into where Dolphin is perfect with just sliding them out. Chrome also cant display forums correctly either. Some posts the text will be tiny and the very next post will be huge.

Firefox is awful. Ive been trying it out on my phone since my Thunderbolt a couple years ago and its always horrible. Nothing works right on it. Finally gave up on it.

Opera was the best but just feels outdated now.

The stock Galaxy browser is almost as good as Dolphin. Really the only thing that keeps me from just sticking with the stock browser as default is the bookmarks and tabs. You just slide the bookmarks out in Dolphin as opposed to having to scroll back up and then push the bookmarks button on the stocker. Same with the tabs. The stock Galaxy browser works just about perfectly on websites though so its just those 2 little things that keep it from being as good as Dolphin's new version.
 
Chrome has given me way too many problems with flash, the only thing it was good for was keeping my bookmarks/tabs from my pc. That's pretty much all I used it for and now that dolphin has seamless uploading I'm no longer going to use it on my pc or phone.

Firefox was just plain awful.

I loved opera up until a year ago when I realised it wasn't going anywhere.

Stock is still fast and surprisingly very awesome. I had paid for dolphin back when I was on 2.2 and when I got my note 3 I just never re downloaded it until a few months back. I had gripes about dolphin, but nothing major, I still swap back and forth between the two actually.

I have yet to do gestures or voice control on dolphin, and honestly I don't think I will.

I want to use night mode, but they should add maybe a dusk mode since night is more like midnight mode...
 
I've got all that stuff turned off. I don't use gestures and I disabled the right slide out menu too. I'm glad they give you that option. I'm all for plenty of features but let me turn off the ones I don't want. Oh and i just found that you can change the theme and colors as well. Don't know if that's new or not cause I never noticed it before but I like it.
 
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Dolphin is really quite good now.

Haven't had any issues with Chrome...apart from the inability to save to external SD
 
Is it really that hard to make a good/fast mobile browser on Android? I haven't found anything as smooth or fast as the stock AOSP browser on my Note 2. I use Chrome Beta occasionally just for tab sync between my PCs and phone if I need to reference something I had open on one of my PCs, but that's about it.

I remember xScope being awesome on my OG Droid (mostly for its one finger/hand zooming and navigation), but it's not free anymore and I'm not sure it'll be worth paying for now.
 
T4rd said:
Is it really that hard to make a good/fast mobile browser on Android? I haven't found anything as smooth or fast as the stock AOSP browser on my Note 2. I use Chrome Beta occasionally just for tab sync between my PCs and phone if I need to reference something I had open on one of my PCs, but that's about it.
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Says more about how your device is setup than the browsers with any recent flagship phone.

Dolphinv11, Chrome (current stable), Boat, UC Browser...all run great on my L900 Note 2 running 4.4.2 Carbon ROM nightlies. Sounds like you're running bloated stock ROMs.
 
The only reason I use Dolphin is that it's the most compatible mobile browser for more complicated (i.e. bad) sites. It's not that fast, not a stranger to crashes and doesn't handle many tabs well at all, nor has a very good UI to switch between them. And it doesn't support word wrap which I find unbelievable for a mobile browser, at least it didn't in the last version I've tried.

Other than site compatibility, Opera 11 is vastly superior.
 
Meeho said:
The only reason I use Dolphin is that it's the most compatible mobile browser for more complicated (i.e. bad) sites. It's not that fast, not a stranger to crashes and doesn't handle many tabs well at all, nor has a very good UI to switch between them. And it doesn't support word wrap which I find unbelievable for a mobile browser, at least it didn't in the last version I've tried.

Other than site compatibility, Opera 11 is vastly superior.
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Does Opera yet have bookmark functionality back?

You have a strange definition of "vastly superior"
 
Skripka said:
Does Opera yet have bookmark functionality back?

You have a strange definition of "vastly superior"
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11 has bookmarks, don't know and don't care for new versions because Opera is getting worse and worse both on PC and mobiles.

As for the superiority comment, well, it is fast, easily customizable to force black background/white text on all sites which is great for AMOLED and my eyes, doesn't crash and handles 50-60 tabs without problems and reloading any of them, with a good UI to switch and close them, has word wrap with infinite zoom levels. And 99% of the sites I visit work. I am yet to find a browser that comes close to that.
 
Meeho said:
11 has bookmarks, don't know and don't care for new versions because Opera is getting worse and worse both on PC and mobiles.

As for the superiority comment, well, it is fast, easily customizable to force black background/white text on all sites which is great for AMOLED and my eyes, doesn't crash and handles 50-60 tabs without problems and reloading any of them, with a good UI to switch and close them, has word wrap with infinite zoom levels. And 99% of the sites I visit work. I am yet to find a browser that comes close to that.
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That right there is kind of silly as a requirement. I know, personal use and all....but 60 tabs on a phone? Load any desktop browser on a low power dual-core machine with 2GB or less of memory...and it'll be hell with 50-60 tabs and not long before stability and lag becomes an issue.

Tried UC Browser? It does just about all the others IIRC including night mode. Boat does too I think.
 
It's a slow glitchy mess. It's prettier , yup , but it totally ruined the speed advantages of the previous version. Very disappointed. Runs awful on my Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.
 
Skripka said:
That right there is kind of silly as a requirement. I know, personal use and all....but 60 tabs on a phone? Load any desktop browser on a low power dual-core machine with 2GB or less of memory...and it'll be hell with 50-60 tabs and not long before stability and lag becomes an issue.
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That should tell you how good (older) Opera Mobile really is. I know that not many people are such heavy surfers on a phone, hell, most people I know barely use tabs on desktops; but I run 20-30 most of the time and max out at 60. All full desktop mode sites (sans Flash), I don't like mobile versions. And it's active for days or even weeks (less so due to inevitable too low RAM issue I eventually run into when I hit the phone heavily). That is on a dual-core 1 GB Gingerbread phone. I think that is amazing.

Tried UC Browser? It does just about all the others IIRC including night mode. Boat does too I think.
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Is night mode a "real" white on black mode or just low brightness/contrast?

I doubt anything could replace my main browser, but am interested in a Dolphin replacement for my GF. Something that is stable and handles Facebook and flash well.
 
Godmachine said:
It's a slow glitchy mess. It's prettier , yup , but it totally ruined the speed advantages of the previous version. Very disappointed. Runs awful on my Galaxy Note Pro 12.2.
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Where are you experiencing glitches and slow speed?
 
Trimlock said:
Where are you experiencing glitches and slow speed?
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In general on nearly any site I go. The previous Dolphin version had no problems. Now it stutters and hangs so it's quite unbearable. Chrome and the native Android browser work fine.
 
Been awhile since I used Dolphin. Been testing it the last 30 minutes or so on a S4 and I really like it. Thanks OP for reminding me about it.
 
i don't see Dolphin v11 in the play store. the latest version was updated yesterday (April 19th), but after installing it and checking its version it shows that it's 10.3.x
I'm in the US on Tmobile.
 
MrCrispy said:
Chrome is the poster child for lag on Android, stock browser almost always is much smoother. Never understood how Google allows Chrome on phone to be so bad.
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Its just as bad as the PC version support wise. They took 2+ years to add print preview. And the fact they still can't display text correctly. Open a modern website that doesn't use a standard font and you'll notice the text looks horrible with jaggies. Compare to IE/others and it looks excellent. That bug has been open forever with Google and as a web designer, it's annoying. Especially since their Web font library is effected.
 
darkpark said:
i don't see Dolphin v11 in the play store. the latest version was updated yesterday (April 19th), but after installing it and checking its version it shows that it's 10.3.x
I'm in the US on Tmobile.
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Strange, I got v11 off play a few days ago. Maybe some strange geographic rollout?
 
Skripka said:
Strange, I got v11 off play a few days ago. Maybe some strange geographic rollout?
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I just installed it. I'm on Tmo in USA.

Check the web based market and see if it shows with any devices not included.

So far, I like it. Is there anyway to make the bottom bar auto hide or something?
 
Spidey329 said:
I just installed it. I'm on Tmo in USA.

Check the web based market and see if it shows with any devices not included.

So far, I like it. Is there anyway to make the bottom bar auto hide or something?
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Fullscreen mode will do that (you can re-enable the status bar in Dolphin Settings)

Be warned the [H] Mobile site doesn't seem to like fullscreen mode. E.g. when you go to enter a reply in fullscreen mode the text input box doesn't scoot up above your keyboard so you can see what you type. I've seen the periodically happen with updates on other browsers FWIW.
 
Hmm same thing happens to me on stock, at least it no longer jumps around when scrolling through your reply.
 
Trimlock said:
Hmm same thing happens to me on stock, at least it no longer jumps around when scrolling through your reply.
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This has always been annoying as shit with the stock browser. Seems there's no browser that can properly format this forum and play well with text input.
 
I still think Opera Classis is the best mobile browser. I am glad they brought it back.
 
T4rd said:
This has always been annoying as shit with the stock browser. Seems there's no browser that can properly format this forum and play well with text input.
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I'm fairly positive it has something to do with the mobile formatting code ran on this site. Kyle has mentioned to not do an app portal and keep it strictly html based for reasons I forget. Since 4.2 this has never formatted correctly on my phones or tablet
 
Trimlock said:
I'm fairly positive it has something to do with the mobile formatting code ran on this site. Kyle has mentioned to not do an app portal and keep it strictly html based for reasons I forget. Since 4.2 this has never formatted correctly on my phones or tablet
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I think the reasons have to do with Kyle being indifferent to mobile access, and having other crap to do than re-inventing the wheel just for phones. I mean hell, H doesn't even run HTTPS...and that I'd classify (and probably most would too) as more important, and there's just as little rush to action on that.

///No disrespect the Boss Man ofc. ;)
 
Skripka said:
I think the reasons have to do with Kyle being indifferent to mobile access, and having other crap to do than re-inventing the wheel just for phones. I mean hell, H doesn't even run HTTPS...and that I'd classify (and probably most would too) as more important, and there's just as little rush to action on that.

///No disrespect the Boss Man ofc. ;)
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Nah I'm not upset, the app is just an html portal anyways. I think his gripe was having to update it when there's a new os version.

I don't really care to be honest, if I need an in-depth reply I'll post from a pc.
 
Vesion 11.1.0 brings back bringing up you bookmarks by swiping to the right. That's the reason I've been using Dolphin so it's nice to see it back.
 
Does Dolphin have forward and back buttons on the menu now? That's one of the main reasons why I switched to Chrome. Also, I found Dolphin doesn't resize the text if I zoom in, whereas Chrome does that, even for Hardforum. Having said that, I really miss the slide for bookmarks capability on Dolphin as it seems all the other browsers don't seem to get this right.
 
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